A Moveable Feast

Hemingway beautifully captures the fragile magic of a special time and place, and he manages to be nostalgic without hitting any false notes of sentimentality. "This is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy," he concludes. Originally published in 1964, three years after his suicide, A Moveable Feast was the first of his posthumous books and remains the best. --David Laskin

Product Description

Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. It is his classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, filled with irreverent portraits of other expatriate luminaries such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein; tender memories of his first wife, Hadley; and insightful recollections of his own early experiments with his craft. It is a literary feast, brilliantly evoking the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the youthful spirit, unbridled creativity, and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.

The book is everything that most late fiction by Hemingway is not. It is lean, romantic, and genuine, without the blustery heroes and stilted dialogue of missed efforts like the dreadful Across the River and Into the Trees.

Here Hemingway looks back fondly on his days with Hadley in Paris, slipping into cafes to sit all day and attempt to write over a cup of coffee. He remembers trips to the racetrack, a hysterical road trip adventure with Fitzgerald to retrieve a car, and other memorable details from the lives of the Lost Generation living abroad. He also takes shots at some so-called friends who turned on him, not passing up on an opportunity to get in the last word. There is some doubt as to whether Hemingway ever wanted this book published, but I am very glad that they did. It is a book to cherish and come back to every couple of years, and it had aged better than anything else Hemingway had written.


A Timeless Recollection Of A Lost Time And Place !   August 3, 2000
Barron Laycock (Temple, New Hampshire United States)
42 out of 44 found this review helpful

Whenever friends ask me why, at my age, I still love Hemingway, I smile and think about this book. They say "Hemingway' and conjure up familiar visions of the older, bloated and blighted boozer bragging about his macho accomplishments in the world of war and sports, while I consider the young Hemingway in Paris. I am thinking of a much younger, intellectually virile man, someone far more alert, aware and alive; Hemingway as a `moveable feast' strolling deliberately through the streets of a rain-swept Paris on a quiet Monday morning, heading to a cafe for some cafe au lait to begin his long day's labor.

In this single, slim tome Hemingway beautifully and unforgettably evokes a world of beauty and innocence now so utterly lost and irretrievable both to himself, through his fame, alcohol, and dissipation, but also to us, for Paris as she was in the 1920s was a place made to order for the lyrical descriptive songs he sings about her in this remembrance; endlessly interesting, instantly unforgettable, and also accessible to the original "starving young artist types" so well depicted here. As anyone visiting Paris today knows, that magical time and place has utterly vanished. Tragically, Paris is just another city these days.

Yet this is a book that unforgettably captures the essence of what the word 'romance' means, and does so in the spare and laconic style that Hemingway developed while sitting in the bistros and watching as the world in all its colors and hues flowed by him. The stories he tells are filled with the kinds of people one usually meets only in novels, yet because of who they were and who they later became in the world of arts and letters, it is hard to doubt the veracity or honesty he uses to such advantage here. This is a portrait of an artist in full possession of his creative powers, full of the vinegary spirit and insight that made him a legend in his own time, and consequently ruined him as an artist and as a human being. There are few books I would endorse for everyone as a lifelong friend. This, however, is a book I can recommend for anyone who wants the reading enjoyment and intellectual experience Hemingway offers in such wonderful abundance in these pages.

Take my advice, though. Buy it first in paper, read it until it begins to fray and fall apart (and you will), and then go out and buy yourself a new hardcover edition to adorn your shelf, so on that proverbial rainy afternoon when the house is quiet, the kids are gone, and you just want to escape from the ordinary ennui and humdrum of life, pull "A Moveable Feast" down and hold it close enough to read. A cup of steaming tea by your side, return all by yourself to a marvelous world of blue city skyscapes, freshly washed cobblestone and unforgettable romance; return once more to Paris in the twenties, when life was simple, basic, and good.


A Rare Look at a Young Hemingway   December 19, 2001
Robbie Port (Minot, ND United States)
41 out of 43 found this review helpful

This book could very well be the best of Hemingway.

A Moveable Feast was published after Hemingway's death and many feel that he would never have wanted it published. I'm very glad they did. It is a memoir of Hemingway's time in Paris during the 1920's. During that time he and his first wife, Hadley, lived on $5.00 a day.

I first heard of this book in the movie, City of Angels (Nicholas Cage, Meg Ryan). In it, Cage reads a quote from it to Ryan. The quote interested me and I bought the book. I was amazed.

The characters in this book are extroridnary including everyone from Ezra Pound to Aleister Crowley. He narrates stories including F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda that are so acidic they almost hurt to read.

Hemingway was at his best when he wrote this book. It is a memoir of an aging man looking back on a very happy time in his life. Its a great place to start for Hemingway beginners and a touching read for Hemingway veterans.


Loss anchors this masterpiece in place and time.   May 10, 1997
34 out of 35 found this review helpful

There are three perfect little books in 20th century English literature: The Good Soldier, by Ford, The Moviegoer, by Percy, and this sparse narrative written in Hemingway's familiar and still powerful limpid prose. There are descriptions here of many literary figures in Paris during the twenties and the famous cuts at Ford and Fitzgerald, but these are not reasons to read this book. You read this book to hear Hemingway speak to you with his guard down, as you cannot otherwise hear him except in the early Nick Adams stories. He is sitting at his typewriter in Ketchum, his great gifts chased from him by alcohol and hubris, and he remembers when he still had it, when he was poor and cold and hungry and he had Hadley, before he became Hemingway, and he types slow, each word pulled from the emptiness to become the next inevitable perfect word, and his words are the shroud over his loss, his bitterness, his grievous fault. This book was not published in Hemingway's lifetime. It was not written for us


PAPA, ON PAPA, BEFORE HE WAS PAPA   November 14, 2000
Loren D. Morrison (Los Angeles County, U.S.A.)
16 out of 19 found this review helpful

A MOVEABLE FEAST is many things to many people. First of all it is, as my title suggests, Papa Hemingway, near the end of his life, reminiscing about himself at the beginning of his writing career. Next, it is a commentary on a group of young American expatriates who came to be known as "the lost generation." Finally, though perhaps unintentionally, it is a physical guide for those of us who would like to explore the Paris of the 1920's.

I have no way of knowing whether or not the young Hemingway was ever as naive as he is painted by the older Hemingway. In scene after scene, Hemingway takes the most outlandish utterances at face value. As an example refer to his luncheon conversation with Ford Madux Ford. I won't ruin your fun by giving you the details. Along these same questionable lines, he describes his first wife, Hadley, as being a rather mild creature who follows his lead in everything without ever expressing a contrary opinion or desire. Fact, or tricks of an older man's memory? Who knows?

Regarding "the lost generation," we are treated to an anecdote wherein Gertrude Stein's mechanic first coins the phrase. We are also introduced to the likes of Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Sylvia Beach, owner of Shakespeare and Company book store and publisher of Joyce's "Ulysses," and, of course, Gertrude Stein and her companion who remains nameless in this book. In the early years, Hemingway liked Stein and Hadley detested her nameless companion whose function was to "talk to the wives."

Now to my favorite part; A MOVEABLE FEAST as a guide to Paris as it was, and mostly, still is. On my last trip to Paris, I carried a copy of A MOVEABLE FEAST with me, and, with it, spent a couple of enjoyable afternoons on the trail of Hemingway, Stein, Pound, et al.

Since the book opens with the Hemingways living on the Rue Mouffetard, it was the beginning of my "lost generation tour of discovery." Rue Mouffetard is still there, not too far from the Latin Quarter and the River Seine. It isn't much changed from Hemingway's day with the possible exception of a modern underground bowling alley. One still sees meat display cases featuring pig snouts and ears, and skinned rabbits.

Many of the rest of the locations mentioned in the book are in Montparnasse within just a few minutes of each other, and again on the left bank, only a few minutes walk from the Seine. I started with Hemingway's apartment. The sawmill beneath it is gone, but the building still stands there. A few hundred yards up the street, Ezra Pound's house still stands. We were able to locate Gertrude Stein's apartment from the address given in the book, and sat in her courtyard waiting for Hemingway, Joyce, and perhaps Picasso to drop by.

Again, only a few hundred yards from Hemingway's apartment, we visited the Closerie des Lilas, Hemingway's "home cafe," where he could be found many mornings doing his writing. The only change is in the prices. These are only a few of Hemingway's haunts that can be located by using A MOVEABLE FEAST as your guide book.

In summary, for me, A MOVEABLE FEAST is a mini guide to my favorite city and a mini history of my favorite era in that city.